BENNINGTON &GT;&GT; Beginning on Saturday, Madison's Brewing Company will offer canned beer for the first time.

The first batch will be the downtown brewery's seasonal Harvest Pumpkin Ale, and it will be sold in four-packs of 16-ounce cans. The brewery expects to produce about 240 cans for the can release event, which will run from 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday.

If all goes well, the brewery plans to sell cans of its popular brews regularly moving forward. While they won't be available in retail outlets right away, according to Madison's co-owner Mike Madison and brewer William Gardner, they can be purchased from Madison's on Main Street. A cooler to house the cans was installed on Wednesday.

The Harvest Pumpkin Ale is brewed with pumpkin and butternut squash, and is blended with ginger, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. "This is a perfect seasonal beer to start with," said Gardner, who added that it was one of their most anticipated seasonal offerings. He said local favorites such as the Sucker Pond Blonde, the Downtown India Pale Ale, and others will be canned in the coming months for sale, but the next big release will likely be the Nor'Beaster Chocolate Imperial Stout, which debuted last year and will return again this winter.

The canning is currently being done at the former Carmody's pub, across the street from Madison's. Madison said there was much more space available there than at Madison's, which made the canning operation possible. "It makes it so much easier to do it over here," he said. The brewery already offers growlers of the beer, and will soon begin a keg service as well.

That building will continue to house the canning operation after it reopens next year as a taproom, which will feature 20 taps of craft beers from around the region, with a focus on Vermont brews, wine, and soda.

Madison has also considered working with the Mobile Can Man out of New York, which fellow Bennington brewery Northshire Brewing utilized to produce its first line of canned beers earlier this year, which would allow the brewery to produce cans in a higher volume. For the time being however, those are discussions for the future.

TALK TO US

If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please
email us. We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by
filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom.

MANCHESTER — Philip Gilpin Jr. is thinking big, and his vision could open new opportunities for Manchester to market itself as an arts and culture destination.
The executive director of the International Television and Film Festival, …